Hi,

New to the forum but have been watching since these proposed amendments were announced, ive signed the petition and put forward a submission (which pales in comparison to those who published theirs here).

Im a hunter not a target shooter but since the bubble burst (celtic tiger died) ive not been able to afford to take up target shooting but wish to do so in the future (even though the disciplines now compared to when i first thought about target shooting have since been restricted)

I watched tonights prime time just a few minutes ago (late shift) and im not surprised that its a 2008 hatchet job round 2.

Personally i dont think that William Egan was the right person for a debate (sitting here in hindsight without the prior details of the show) but he is more than accustomed firearms laws, unfortunately Deputy McGrath is a loud mouth who can only be silenced by another loud mouth with facts/figures which would have never worked even with the best loud mouth for our side as the presenter was bias, plus he probably went into the show without knowing who would represent the anti gun side (turns out he was 2 against 1)

Rte regardless of what was shown to them had their own agenda once again and as shown on prime time they made the law abiding firearms holder (who imo are vetted more than those in charge of children or people with special needs as well as many other professions) look like the scumbags who who are involved in drugs and gangland killings (imo) whilst using illegal firearms most of which are only allowed to be sold to defense forces/law enforcement


If im not mistaken it has been asked in the Dail as to how many people have firearms certificates which is yet to be answered (i think) but i believe sparks put the question to Niall Collins to ask the Minister of Justice via the Dail, i have yet to so an official number (maybe i missed it) from the government yet Prime Time quoted the number as been 144,991 which i find hard to believe as when i thought about myself having 3 firearms plus 3 friends the number totaled nearly 25 (target and hunting)

Can anyone tell me if CS Fergus Healy has been asked why he believes that people are trying to circumvent the law by applying for a .22lr pistol (which they are legally entitled to apply for) because no new applicant is entitled to apply for a CF pistol, it seems (imo) that CS Healy is making it out that those who apply for a .22lr pistol are breaking the law because they cant license a CF pistol (yet the courts have proven the guards wrong on this not to mention other applications)

Did any of those who represented shooters in front of the Joint Justice Committee know that they were meeting again tomorrow to discuss the proposed amendments?? Or was that kept quiet?

Im not on twitter but will be tomorrow to call out the trolls and hopefully make those ignorant of the current restrictions/law realise how ignorant they are but chances of anyone anti gun admitting they are wrong is like making a priest believe god doesnt exist even with facts presented to them (not a great analogy but it works)

complaints@rte.ie

Dear Sir/Madam,

I wish to make a complaint about Prime Time on Tuesday March 10th. The programme was poorly researched, lacked any investigative reporting and was delivered in an absolute biased manner by the reporter and studio anchor. I will explain why.

Reporting

The programme was titled "Guns In Ireland" never reported on the fact Ireland has the strictest gun ownership in the EU. Barry Cummins saw it fit not to mention the licensing process for Target Shooters and the extensive application form we have to fill out to satisfy An Garda Siochana. He seemed to be in awe of Chief Superintendent Healy and did not even to challenge his remarks.
The programme immediately linked licensed firearm ownership by law abiding citizens with criminals and thugs using illegal firearms and individuals using firearms who are not permitted to do so. Placing a distressed Mrs Cambell on the murder of her Son, Anthony by criminals in the same programme was noting short of sensationalism on the part of the programme makers. There is no link between licensed sporting firearms and criminality.

Studio

Miriam O Callaghan was completely biased in her delivery and interaction with Mr Egan. and did not permit equal time and equal opportunity
for both interviewed guests to make their case, with Deputy McGrath
being allowed to ignore the host and speak over Mr.Egan on several
occasions for a significant period of time. Mc Grath was allowed to bulldoze both O Callaghan and Mr Egan with ease and talking incessantly with unfounded statements.

Research

I personally emailed the Deputy Editor, Paul Ferris on Monday March 9th and informed of the following.....

Dear Paul,

Please excuse me for writing to you again. I understand that the feature on firearms licensing takes place on Tuesday night. I assume that you are in possession of critical information supplied on Tuesday 3rd March by Minister Francis Fitzgerald in reply to Dail Questions by Deputy Niall Collins. The data she supplied to the Dail is the PULSE information supplied by AGS and is a list of Firearms stolen between 2010 and 2014. In regard to the figure of approximately 1700 firearms that were listed by the Gardai as having been stolen from 2010 to 2014 raised interesting written questions in the Dail on Tuesday this week, which saw an info dump of raw data from PULSE regarding the figures. Here's the breakdown.

The breakdown which transpired upon the release of the raw data by the Minister in the Dail on March 3 to include hundreds of items which are not legally firearms in Ireland. In other words the whole basis for the proposed ban is based on these incorrect data figures by An Garda Siochana. Despite Mr Ferris having this critical information it was not delivered on this the leading investigative current affairs programme in the State.

I am absolutely incensed at the treatment of law abiding sport people and how the Prime Time programme represented the story without few facts by RTE and intend to make a formal complaint to the BAI. Based on the programmes previous indiscretions and fines by the BAI one would have assumed that a report of this nature would have been properly researched and delivered.

Yours sincerely,

extremetaz wrote: »

Complaint sent - above all else, the blantently, intentionally, biased nature of the whole thing shocks me (and I was expecting it to be bad!) - it's every bit as bad as anything you'd see in the Star or similar. How can people be expected to believe anything that comes out of any RTE media after that??? (not that I placed much weight on it to begin with but my GOD!!)

I agree with you. It was terrible top watch. The piece was appalling in research, delivery and presentation. The deer shoot was a nothing for want of better words. Mick Topes interview was shredded to pieces by all accounts. Not enough range "time" and absolutely no look at the licensing process. Then have Pinocchio in the Phoenix Park giving out the drivel and lies that he has been quite accustomed to without any question or "hold on, aren't you the guys that issue licenses?" from Cummins. Then the studio "debate" was disgraceful. Miriam O Callaghan allowed McGrath to chatter away. We needed a shouter there last night to call McGrath a grandstander and demand to be heard and keep talking. We did not have the right guy there. He should not have accepted the invitation.

Is CS Healy a member of the IOC?

His definition of "Olympic Standard" and the Olympics definition are completely different.

Maybe he should stop telling fibs to Oireachtas committees and RTE reports and go out a catch the criminals using guns - there is only a pool of 25 of them after all.

That was some disgrace last night to add to a litany of disgraces.
My twopence worth sent to the BAI and RTE's complaints for all the good it'll do:

Dear Sir/Madam,
I write to complain about the biased, cheap, tabloid nature of RTE's Primetime's report on firearms licensing on last night, the 10th of March 2015. It was one-sided as it strove to blur the lines between licensed, legal sporting and hunting activity and, so called, 'gangland' murders and mass shootings in other countries (where failures by the police resulted in unstable people being licensed; a fact not mentioned in the report) . The interviews and report were emotive coupled with menacing music and sound effects in the background.
The report fatuously suggests that any unsolved gun murders may have been carried out with stolen, previously legally held firearms. This is extremely unlikely considering the small numbers of the relevant firearms which have been officially reported stolen and the large quantity which are known to be illegally imported and those that remain from 'the Troubles', etc. The veracity of Garda/Dept. of Justice figures which were used in the piece has been undermined only recently in the Dail when the Minister for Justice had to concede that of ~1700 reported firearms thefts recorded by the Gardai in recent times that ~600 of these could not actually be defined as firearms. (such as gunsafes, airsoft toy guns, etc.) This very pertinent, recently revealed, information was excluded from the report.
In the interview, Deputy McGrath uses the same, incorrect and purposely misleading, figure in his ill informed, emotive rant about firearms. Mr Egan attempted to address these false figures but was not afforded the opportunity to do so as Ms. O Callaghan warned him not to 'bamboozle viewers with figures' (the correct figures in this case!) Ms. O Callaghan allowed Deputy McGrath to dominate the interview and she also used an emotive and biased line of questioning for Mr. Egan. Ms. O Callaghan did not give him sufficient time to answer her 'questions' and allowed to Deputy McGrath to interject and talk over Mr. Egan thus rendering the interview completely one sided, as was probably intended judging by the overall tone of the piece.
There was no mention in the report of how we compare to other European countries in relation to licensed firearms. Only the UK is mentioned (where handguns are still licensed for humane dispatch of animals, not banned outright as reported in the piece) There was no coverage given to the round table agreements made, in recent years, between the Minister for Justice, the Dept. of Justice and the Gardai and the sport shooting stakeholders, agreements which the Gardai have since reneged on, which is why they have been beaten in court so many times on firearms licensing issues. There was no mention made of the attempt by the relevant Dept of Justice/Garda Working Group (of which Chief Superintendent Fergus Healy, interviewed in the report, is a senior member) to hold a 'pretend' consultation process before introducing draconian reforms to firearms licensing which are out of line with other EU countries. None of these important facts were mentioned in the report. I assume many of the sportspeople interviewed by Mr. Cummins informed him of these facts but they were edited out.
If this is the best that RTE can do in covering such an important issue it makes me question the value of my licence fee.
The way in which law abiding sportspeople have been treated by the State in recent years is disgraceful. If any other minority were treated in such a way there would be uproar. It is a shame that a 'factual' news programme cannot shed at least some light on the plight of the sporting shooter and look at any real or perceived public safety concerns in a rational manner based on the facts.